Trends and Applications in Smart Horticulture

Prof. Jameel M. Al-Khayri is affiliated with the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. He received B.S. in Biology in 1984 from the University of Toledo, M.Sc. in Agronomy in 1988, and Ph.D. in Plant Science in 1991 from the University of Arkansas. He is a member of the International Society for Horticultural Science and serves as the National Correspondent of the International Association of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology. He has authored 106 research articles, 58 chapters and edited several journal special issues. In addition, he edited 25 reference books on plant biotechnology, genetic resources, breeding, genomics, and nanotechnology. He has been involved in organizing international scientific conferences and contributed numerous research presentations. In addition to teaching, advising, and research, he held administrative responsibilities as the Assistant Director of Date Palm Research Center, Head of the Department of Plant Biotechnology, and Vice Dean for Development and Quality Assurance. He is interested in the role of biotechnology in enhancing food security and mitigation of the impact of climate change on agriculture.

Dr. Muneeb Ahmad Wani is currently working as Senior Researcher at Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture (FLA), SKUAST-Kashmir, India. He is PhD/MS in Floriculture and Landscape Architecture from SKUAST-Kashmir. He is Post Doctorate from Centre for Agricultural Research & Innovation (CARI), Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Punjab, India where he worked on propagation and expansion of high-valued horticulture crops in non-traditional areas. He has five years of research, teaching and extension experience. He has authored more than 40 research articles, 05 review articles, 07 book chapters, 06 edited books (national/international). He is member of America Society for Horticultural Sciences (ASHS), International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), Society for Plant Research (SPR), Just Agriculture and Society for Bioinformatics and Biological Sciences. During his doctoral program, he was the recipient of prestigious MANF fellowship from University Grants Commission (UGC), Govt. of India. He is recipient of Himadri Young Scientist Award from ISHRD and Fellow award from Society of Plant Research (Vegetos, Springer). In Addition to the number of publications in reputed journals, Dr Wani is actively involved as a reviewer in many reputed publishing houses like PlosOne, Frontiers, Elsevier and ISHS. His current area of research interest includes DUS testing & germplasm screening, plant biotechnology, mutagenesis and soilless cultivation.

Dr. Tanzeel is working as an Assistant Professor in Biosystems Engineering at Auburn University. He graduated from Purdue University with Ph.D. degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. His research was focused on using hyperspectral imaging and artificial intelligence for predicting the phenomic characteristics of corn. Prior to that, Dr Tanzeel got master’s degree from Dalhousie University Canada, where he worked on a robotic spraying system responsible for site-specific herbicide application. He did his undergrad in Agricultural Engineering from University of Agriculture, Pakistan. At Auburn, he is working on establishing a research program to use the imaging sensors, proximal devices, computer vision, robust data mining algorithms, artificial intelligence and robotics for smart horticultural applications. The goal of the research is to help the farmers associated with fruit, vegetable, nursery, landscape and greenhouse production systems by minimizing the labor costs, non-targeted pesticides application and improving inventory management and production efficiencies.

Prof. S Mohan Jain is an Adjunct Professor, Consultant and plant biotechnologist, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. He was awarded Nobel Peace Prize, in commemoration the awarding to IAEA of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005; also, former consultant to IAEA, the European Union, The Government of Grenada, Iranian date palm Company and the Egyptian Government. He has been involved in in vitro culture, nuclear applications in breeding for the improvement of both vegetatively and seed propagated plants; published over 225 papers in peer reviewed in international journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He has edited 80 books in collaboration with international well reputed researchers on In vitro haploid production, somatic embryogenesis, genetic diversity and erosion, biodiversity and conservation, advances in plant breeding, protocols for somatic embryogenesis, date palm biotechnology, ornamental and medicinal plants.